Provided by: ucf_3.0038_all 
NAME
ucf - Update Configuration File: preserve user changes in configuration files
SYNOPSIS
ucf [options] <New File> <Destination>
ucf [options] --purge <Destination>
DESCRIPTION
This utility provides a means of asking the user whether or not to accept new versions of configuration
files provided by the package maintainer, with various heuristics designed to minimize interaction time.
It uses debconf to interact with the user, as per Debian policy. In the SYNOPSIS above, New file is the
configuration file as provided by the package (either shipped with the package, or generated by the
maintainer scripts on the fly), and Destination is the location (usually under /etc) where the real
configuration file lives, and is potentially modified by the end user. Since the files edited would be
real files, and not symbolic links, ucf follows and resolves symbolic links before acting. As far as
possible, ucf attempts to preserve the ownership and permission of the New file as it is copied to the
new location.
This script attempts to provide conffile like handling for files installed under /etc not shipped in a
Debian package, but handled by the postinst instead. Debian policy states that files under /etc which
are configuration files must preserve user changes, and this applies to files handled by maintainer
scripts as well. Using ucf, one may ship a bunch of default configuration files somewhere in /usr (
/usr/share/<pkg> is a good location), and maintain files in /etc, preserving user changes and in general
offering the same facilities while upgrading that dpkg normally provides for “conffiles”
Additionally, this script provides facilities for transitioning a file that had not been provided
conffile like protection to come under this schema, and attempts to minimize questions asked at install
time. Indeed, the transitioning facility is better than the one offered by dpkg while transitioning a
file from a non-conffile to conffile status. The second form in the SYNOPSIS above is for purging
information about the configuration file when the package is purged; and is critical for allowing smooth
reinstallations.
During the course of operations, when working with configuration files, ucf optionally creates copies of
versions of the configuration file in question. For example, a file with the suffix ucf-old holds the old
version of a configuration file replaced by ucf. Also, copies of the configuration file with the
suffixes ucf-new and ucf-dist may be created; and the maintainer scripts should consider purging copies
of the configuration file with these extensions during purge.
OPTIONS
-h, --help
Print a short usage message
-n, --no-action
Dry run. Print the actions that would be taken if the script is invoked, but take no action.
-d[n], --debug=[n]
Set the debug level to the (optional) level n (n defaults to 1). Please note there must be no
spaces before the optional digit n. This turns on copious debugging information.
-p, --purge
Removes all vestiges of the file from the state hashfile. This is required to allow a package to
be reinstalled after it is purged; since otherwise, the real configuration file is removed, but it
remains in the hash file; and on reinstall no action is taken, since the md5sum of the new file
matches that in the hashfile. In short, remember to use this option in the postrm for every
configuration file managed by ucf when the package is being purged (assuming ucf itself exists).
Note: ucf does not actually touch the file on disk in this operation, so any file removals are
still the responsibility of the calling package.
-v, --verbose
Make the script be very verbose about setting internal variables.
-s foo, --src-dir foo
Set the source directory (historical md5sums are expected to live in files and sub directories of
this directory) to foo. By default, the directory the new_file lives in is assumed to be the
source directory. Setting this option overrides settings in the environment variable
UCF_SOURCE_DIR, and in the configuration file variable conf_source_dir.
--sum-file foo
Force the historical md5sums to be read from this file, rather than defaulting to living in the
source directory. Setting this option overrides settings in the environment variable
UCF_OLD_MDSUM_FILE, and in the configuration file variable conf_old_mdsum_file.
--three-way
This turns on the option, during installation, for the user to be offered a chance to see a merge
of the changes between old maintainer version and the new maintainer version into the local copy
of the configuration file. If the user likes what they see, they can ask to have these changes
merged in. This allows one to get new upstream changes merged in even while retaining local
modifications to the configuration file. This is accomplished by taking the configuration file and
stashing it in a cache area during registration, and using diff3 during the install (the stashed
file name is a munged version of the full path of the configuration file to avoid name space
clashes).
--debconf-ok
Indicate that it is ok for ucf to use an already running debconf instance for prompting (it has
always been ok to use ucf when debconf is not running -- it shall invoke debconf as needed).
--debconf-template foo
Instruct ucf to use the named multiselect debconf template instead of the normal ucf-provided
debconf template. The caller is responsible for ensuring that the named template exists and has a
list of choices matching those for the default ucf template, and should set Choices-C: ${CHOICES}
to ensure the returned values match those from the default template. Note that the choices must
be different according to whether the --three-way option is also set.
--state-dir /path/to/dir
Set the state directory to /path/to/dir instead of the default /var/lib/ucf. Used mostly for
testing.
USAGE
The most common case usage is pretty simple: a single line invocation in the postinst on configure, and
another single line in the postrm to tell ucf to forget about the configuration file on purge (using the
--purge option) is all that is needed (assuming ucf is still on the system).
It is recommended that you also register any file being managed by ucf with the ucf registry; this
associates the configuration file with the package it belongs to. This is done with a simple call to
ucfr. Users may then query the association between a configuration file and the package using the tool
ucfq. Please see the appropriate manual pages for details.
If a file maintained by maintainer scripts is being transitioned from an unprotected status to the
protection afforded by the script, the maintainer can help ease the transition by reducing the questions
that may be asked at installation time. Specifically, questions should not be asked if the file in
question is an unmodified version that was one shipped in a previous version of this package; and the
maintainer can help by telling the script about the historical md5sums that published versions of this
file contained.
The way to do this is to either create a file called <New file>.md5sum, with one md5sum on each line,
(the file names you use are ignored, except for the entry named default), or create a directory, called
<New file>.md5sum.d, which should contain any number of files, each containing a single line, namely, the
md5sum of a previous version of <New file>. The names of these files are not important, with one
exception: The file called default is treated specially. For example, the author personally uses either
package version numbers or release code names, like 7.6.3, or potato. If none of the historical md5sums
match, we are almost certain that either the historical record of md5sums is not complete, or the user
has changed the configuration file.
The default historical md5sum
The exception to the rule about names mentioned earlier is that if no md5sums match, and if the file <New
file>.md5sum.d/default exists, or if there is a line corresponding to a default file in <New
file>.md5sum, it shall be used as the default md5sum of the previous version of the package assumed to
have been installed on this machine. As you can see, unless there are limited number of previously
released packages (like just one), the maintainer is also making an informed guess, but the option is
provided to the maintainer.
If the file <New file>.md5sum, or the directory <New file>.md5sum.d does not exist, or none of the
md5sums match, we test the installed <Destination> file to see whether it is the same as the <New file>.
If not, we ask the user whether they want us to replace the file.
An additional facility is also offered: optionally, ucf can store one old version of the maintainers copy
of the configuration file, and, on upgrade, calculate the changes made in the maintainers version of the
configuration file, and apply that patch to the local version of the file (on user request, of course).
There is also a preview facility where the user can inspect the results of such a merge, before asking
the action to be taken.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The variable UCF_FORCE_CONFFNEW, if set, forces the new file to always overwrite the installed
destination file, while the variable UCF_FORCE_CONFFOLD, if set silently retains the installed file.
UCF_FORCE_CONFFMISS is only applicable when the installed destination file does not exist (perhaps due to
user removal),and forces ucf to recreate the missing file (the default behaviour is to honor the users
wishes and not recreate the locally deleted file).
FILES
This script creates the file new_file.md5sum, and it may copy the file (presumably shipped with the
package) <New file> to its destination, <Destination>.
/var/lib/ucf/hashfile, and /var/lib/ucf/hashfile.X, where X is a small integer, where previous versions
of the hashfile are stored.
/etc/ucf.conf
EXAMPLES
If the package foo wants to use ucf to handle user interaction for configuration file foo.conf, a version
of which is provided in the package as /usr/share/foo/configuration, a simple invocation of ucf in the
post inst file is all that is needed:
ucf /usr/share/foo/configuration /etc/foo.conf
On purge, one should tell ucf to forget about the file (see detailed examples in
/usr/share/doc/ucf/examples):
ucf --purge /etc/foo.conf Please note that purge can also be used to make ucf forget the previous state
of the files, and when the package is next installed or updated, ucf will ask the user to replace the
current cofiguration file. Do this if you want to change your decision to not update to a maintainer
provided version of the configuration file.
The motivation for this script was to provide conffile like handling for start files for emacs lisp
packages (for example, /etc/emacs21/site-start.d/50psgml-init.el ) These start files are not shipped with
the package, instead, they are installed during the post installation configuration phase by the script
/usr/lib/emacsen-common/emacs-package-install $package_name.
This script is meant to be invoked by the packages install script at
/usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/install/$package_name for each flavour of installed emacsen by calling
it with the proper values of new file ( /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/<pkg>/<pkg-init.el ), and dest file (
/etc/emacs21/site-start.d/50<pkg-init.el ), and it should do the rest.
SEE ALSO
ucf.conf(5), ucfr(1), ucfq(1), and diff3(1). The Debian Emacs policy, shipped with the package emacsen-common.
AUTHOR
This manual page was written Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system.